


Roundabout

by meredyd



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Gen, Spirit World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-20
Updated: 2013-09-20
Packaged: 2017-12-27 03:31:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/973787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meredyd/pseuds/meredyd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hi,” Jinora says. After a moment of consideration: “You’re a spirit.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Roundabout

Jinora is standing at the edge of the water, just far enough away from the lights that they form a pleasant multi-colored blur. She can see the bobbing figures of the crowds but hardly hear them, over the music and the smells of frying oil and animals and the snowy air washing her cold and clean. 

She looks away for a moment and when she looks back, there is a girl in front of her. She has wise, weary eyes. Everything about her is almost transparent. 

“Hi,” Jinora says. After a moment of consideration: “You’re a spirit.”

“Yes,” says the girl. “But I don’t always look like this.”

“Did you come here for the festival?” she says, cautiously. This is a kind spirit, and she nearly glows with it, but still. 

If there is anything Jinora has learned in the past six months it is caution.

“I’ve wondered about it.” 

The girl floats along only just above the ground in her bare feet and pale dress. Jinora walks along beside her as if in a dream. She senses that if they did not want to there would be no need for them to talk and that is a quality she is enormously fond of in other people. 

“The tribes together like this, it’s wonderful. Things have changed so much. Not as much as people think, though.” 

“My family loves it. Everyone but my dad, but he never has any fun.” 

“I didn’t get to have much fun when I was alive,” the girl admits. 

It’s then that Jinora notices the sky. 

It’s easy not to see for all the electricity, but there’s no mistaking it now. Just blackness and stars and nothing else over the quiet expanse of the sea. The words come out in a rush. 

“I always wanted to meet you! I mean, I always wanted to know what it was like," says Jinora. "You're amazing."

Yue’s smile is so soft and slow as it rises on her face. She takes Jinora’s hand through her mittens and it’s solid now. Her hair is a shock of white.

Everything that looked lovely about the carnival suddenly seems garish and too much. There is something heavy in Jinora’s throat, the same thing that is there when she looks at beautiful things that are very, very old. 

“I used to spend the week of the solstice in the spirit oasis,” Yue says. “I would meditate for hours and when I was done, the whole tribe would be waiting for me. I prayed for the spirits to protect us all.”

“That sounds nice,” says Jinora. “I’d love to have time to be alone like that.”

“It was. But lonely. I never really celebrated with…who I wanted to,” Yue says. “It’s not right to admit those sorts of things in my position, though.”

“You’re here now!” says Jinora. She grins. “And we have all night. Is there something you _really_ want to do?”

Yue points upwards and farther upwards still, to the slowly rotating ferris wheel. Her laugh is a shy sound that isn’t old at all, and it makes Jinora miss home.  

\--

It is past her bedtime and Jinora is in her grandmother’s room intently watching the moon. They are drinking milky tea with honey and after the open ocean and strange night everything is close and warm. 

“When we get back from the Air Temples,” Jinora says, “I want to learn about the Water Tribes too. From you, and Aunt Kya. I know a lot about only one thing, and dad thinks that’s okay, but it’s not, it doesn’t feel like it is.” 

Gran Gran just holds her close for a long time, in the way she did when she was very small. 


End file.
